Ohnkn
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
JeffZeleny.Editor, 472-1766
Jeff Robb.Managing Editor
Matt Woody.Opinion Page Editor
DeDra Janssen.Associate News Editor
Rainbow Rowell.Arts & Entertainment Editor
James Mehsling.Cartoonist
Chris Hain.Senior Reporter
Red tape
New tuition deposit accomplishes little
Save your money this summer, students, because the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln will come collecting in August.
A $200 tuition deposit will be due the week before fall classes begin
in August This amount replaces the $35 preregistration fee that once
was due at the time of registration.
After a long summer vacation, this $200 could come as a shock to
students. But don’t be alarmed. In a world of the ever-increasing
university fees, the new $200 bill isn’t as bad as it sounds.
The university actually is tiying to help students by charging this
fee. The $200 deposit due one week before classes will remind students
to withdraw if their plans have changed, said Earl Hawkey, director
of registration and records.
“We’re trying to weed out the folks who aren’t really going to
come,” Hawkey said. “With $35, people were willing to pay in March
when they registered, but they would blow class off and not with
draw.”
The good news is, students, ifyou didn’t save $200 by the summer’s
end, you really don’t have to pay the bill.
“We will not cancel students,” said Bob Clark, director of student
accounts. “To cancel students that abruptly is doing them a disser
vice.”
So what’s the point of it all?
This just seems like another layer of university red tape that
students must cut through.
Another view
California’s habitual-offender law is off to a shaky start. The law,
dubbed “Three Strikes and You’re Out,” requires anyone convicted of
three felonies, including one violent crime, to serve 25 years to life in
prison.
The perverse result is that defendants up for their third felony is Los
Angeles are refusing to plea-bargain for sentences, this clogging the
courts with expensive, time-consuming trials.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles fear they may have to drop misde
meanor prosecutions, the kind of low-level street crime that, while
usually nonviolent, harms, the quality of life. Civil suits are already in
holding patterns so that the strikeout criminal docket can be served.
Otherstates considering the California example may learn from the
law’s excesses. The demands a maximum sentence for a third felony,
but only one of the crimes must be a violent one, leading to such
absurdities as the recent long-term imprisonment of a man for steal ing
a slice of pizza from children, his third conviction.
The three-time-loser law is so loose that in Los Angeles County,
only 4 percent of second and third felony prosecutions have been for
violent crimes like murder, rap, kidnapping or carjacking, according
to the court system’s own study.
Final judgments are not in. The law’s advocates say it will work
better after further shakedown. San Francisco’s prosecutors use the
law more sparingly against selected defendants, which may show that
it can be made to work. So far, however, California’s vaunted get
tough policy has one strike against it.
— The New York Times
Correction
The general election for Lincoln city offices is May 2. A Tuesday
Daily Nebraskan editorial listed an incorrect date.
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Spiing 1995. Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editori
als do notneccssarilyreflcctthe views
of the university, its employees, the
students or the NU BoardofRegents.
Editorial columns represent the opin
ion of die author. The regents publish
the Daily Nebraskan. They establish
die UNL Publications Board to su
pervise die daily production of the
paper. According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edito
rial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its students.
Lector policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor from all readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily
Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material
submitted Readers also are welcome to submit ma
terial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether
material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and
guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the
property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be
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lished. Letters should included the author's name,
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Submitmaterial to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska
Union. 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
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Decency Act
I do not agree with the Commu
nications Decency Act of 1995.1
can understand wanting to prevent
pornography from being accessible
to children. However, it is not the
government’s responsibility to
monitor that. It is the parent’s
responsibility to make sure that
their kids are playing appropriate
computer games, watching the
appropriate shows, etc.
I do agree that pornography
shouldn’t be accessible over the
Internet, but there are alternatives
to censoring everyone’s mail.
Censorship has to be all or nothing.
The government is always
preaching family values, but by
passing this bill, it isn’t allowing
parents to instill those values. If the
parents don’t instill these values, it
would be hypocritical to complain
if their children go astray. The
government needs to let parents try
to solve this problem before it
jumps the gun and makes it worse.
Kelli Brust
freshman
education
WlnstonCrabb
In response to Christine
Scudder’s letter regarding the
abortionist’s “right to privacy”: I
object to your belief that the
neighbors and community of Dr.
Winston Crabb have no place
knowing that he makes his living
aborting unborn babies.
Just because abortion is a legal
right now does not mean it is moral
or right. Killing humans for an
occupation is a sorry excuse for
making a living.
Comparing your dentist’s
occupation of cleaning teeth (or
your lawyer’s coaching of little
league) is not a logical comparison
to Dr. Crabb’s occupation. Abor
tionists kill babies! When your
dentist cleans teeth, he doesn’t
snuff out the life of a small,
helpless child.
And as for no one needing to
BretGottschall/DN
know what their neighbors are up
to — I object. If they are playing a
family game of Monopoly, that’s
one thing, but if a member of their
family, on a day-to-day basis, kills
babies, that’s another. Not only the
neighbors should be protesting ...
the entire Lincoln community '
should as well.
If Scudder and the Crabb family
are ashamed of his career choice to
abort babies and don’t like caring,
concerned members of Lincoln
stating just what this “doctor” is up
to, then maybe they should re-think
the morality of his practice.
As long as abortionists continue
to kill unborn babies, pro-lifers will
be standing on their sidewalks
protesting, writing letters, forming
groups, educating others and doing
anything and everything to help
end this holocaust.
Scudder and Dr. Crabb support
ers: Get used to pro-life activists;
we’re here to stay. We’re die voice
for the small and innocent he’s
killing. And we’ll be here until he
chooses to help give life — and not
take it away.
Sara E. Schlife
freshman
business management
president, UNL Students for Life
Religion and science
I am writing to give a different
slant to Yousuf Bashir’s column
“Religion: the food we live on”
(March 29). While I agree that
there is a need for religion, I feel
that many of his statements are
misguided and simplistic.
To believe that “religion is
something that human nature
demands” is ridiculous. Human
nature expresses desires for many
things, including explanations for
the phenomena we observe around
us, a system of rules or guidelines
by which to live and, in some
cases, a purpose for our existence.
Religion has provided a useful
mechanism for providing these
things and many more. That is not
to say that these things can only be
found within the context of a
religion; sometimes it is just nicer
if someone else has thought it all
out for you.
I also take exception to Bashir’s
comments that science has divided
life into many compartments while
religion unifies these departments
into a whole. Physicists spend a lot
of their time trying to formulate
universal theories that describe all
interactions from sub-atomic
particles to galaxies, while biolo
gists have found that every living
organism, from viruses to humans,
shares common structures, chemis
try and history.
Compare this Gestalt approach
with religion, where people (of the
same species) are regarded as
different because of the deity they
worship to the point where it is OK
to kill someone for believing in a
different God.
I have no problem with Bashir’s
faith, but he really shouldn’t try to
prop it up with the kind of warped
rationalizations he presented in the
Daily Nebraskan.
Ben Gawne
research associate
forestry, fisheries & wildlife
Compare this Gestalt approach
with religion, where people (of the
same species) are regarded as
different because of the deity they
worship to the point where it is OK
to kill someone for believing in a
different God.
I have no problem with Bashir’s
faith, but he really shouldn’t try to
prop it up with the kind of warped
rationalizations he presented in the
Daily Nebraskan.
Ben Gawne
research associate
forestry, fisheries & wildlife
